


The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

by worldturnedupsidedown



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Christmas, Friendship, Gen, Holidays
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-06
Updated: 2016-11-06
Packaged: 2018-08-27 19:14:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,960
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8413381
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/worldturnedupsidedown/pseuds/worldturnedupsidedown
Summary: When you can't go back to your family, holidays are the worst time of the year.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [vulcanhighblood](https://archiveofourown.org/users/vulcanhighblood/gifts).



> If you turn your head and squint, there is some Hunk/Lance preslash but nothing overt. Hunk was the hardest and the most interesting to write. Thank you, vulcanhighblood, for the chance to write him!

**Shiro**  
  
There were several clues that something was wrong with Lance. When he came in, he didn't smile at his friends and say hello to his 'fellow defenders of the universe'. He didn't talk to Hunk and Pidge about what they were building (Shiro was sure he didn't want to know too much detail, if he did he would have to stop it and he sort of wanted to see what would happen) and he didn't bicker with Keith when the other man came into breakfast, late after having a training session right after he woke up. Shiro made a mental note to talk to Keith about taking breaks at times as well, although he was sure to get Keith calling him a hypocrite if he did so, but he also noticed how Lance didn't even stir from where he was listlessly poking his purple alien breakfast goo.

"Lance, are you alright?" Shiro asked quietly. He didn't want to draw too much attention. Hunk and Pidge kept on discussing something about how far the bomb could be launched (Shiro really didn't want to know), but Keith's eyes flickered over to the two of them. He didn't show any other sign, kept eating his alien goo with his usual manner and acted seemingly oblivious to the conversation between Shiro and Lance.

"I'm fine," Lance said, just as quietly.

"Really?" Shiro put down his spoon to look at Lance directly. "Because you seem quiet this morning. Is there anything I can help you with?"

"No." Lance dropped his spoon down on the plate with a clatter. Shiro hadn't noticed any food pass his lips at all. "There's nothing _you_ could help me with." There was a strange emphasis placed on 'you' and Shiro blinked, a little hurt. Yes, he may be the leader of their strange band of Paladins but they were also his only friends and Lance's words seemed personal.

"He was just asking," Keith bit out, obviously noticing something, whether it was Lance's tone or Shiro's expression, he wasn't sure. He came to Shiro's defence, as he had before, and it was hard to feel annoyed at that, but it made everything with Lance ten times worse.

"And I was telling him as nicely as I could that I wanted him to back off," Lance snapped back. Pidge and Hunk had stopped working, pulled out of their happy genius buzz at the raised voices.

"What the hell?" Pidge asked, genuinely baffled. It was an innocent question from someone who missed the build up, but it made Lance get to his feet in rough, jerky movements, making Shiro tense unintentionally.

"Forget it." Lance stalked off and left the four of them staring at his back in confusion and, for Keith, anger.

"Why is he so mad this morning?" He muttered and spooned another spoonful of goo into his mouth. Shiro had lost his appetite but kept eating. This wasn't an old habit so he had a feeling this was something he had learned from the Galra, eating even you're not hungry because you didn't know when you could next eat. He shoved the memories away, annoyed at himself. He had to focus on Lance right now.

Hunk looked like he was thinking hard, his fingers tapping in mid-air. Pidge was watching him but not interrupting so Shiro did the same. "It's Chrismas next week," Hunk said suddenly.

"What?" Keith asked, raising his eyes from his plate.

"Going by the date we left Earth and the number of days we've been here in the Castle, December 25th is next week. In eight days time actually. Eight Earth days," Hunk added. The twenty-nine hour days took some getting used but Hunk was the one who had adjusted easily with adjusting the numbers, having a calendar of both Earth and Castle days on his wall. "I should have realised."

Shiro thought of the last Christmas he remembered with his family. It must have been nearly three years ago now, considering one was spent with the Galra and one was with Captain Holt and Matt. The Holts had made the best of it but it was obvious they missed Katie and Mrs Holt. And it had just made Shiro think of his own family. His parents had died years ago but his aunt and his grandmother had always made the occasion special.

He tried to picture their faces but every time he did there would be one of Champion's opponent's faces instead.

"Er... why he's so upset at Christmas being next week?" Keith asked. He obviously realised this was something he should know but he was asking anyway. Shiro would be pleased if he wasn't still off-kilter at his fading memories.

"He's homesick. He misses his family," Hunk replied. He wouldn't make fun of Keith for not knowing. "Christmas is a special time, you know?" He and Pidge looked upset at this and Shiro bit his lip as he tried to think of something that would make them feel better. What could you say to people who might never see their families again?

"Not really," Keith replied, brutally honest and drew everyone out of their own thoughts.

Pidge blinked. It looked like she was about to get angry but then a realisation came to her. "You spent Christmas in a desert shack with space lion vibes and your knife for company, didn't you?" She asked but in a tone that implied it really wasn't a question.

Shiro wanted to grimace as Keith shrugged, as good as confirming Pidge's words. He had known that Keith had been alone a lot when he was gone, the desert hut didn't have an air of something fit for company, but the thought of Keith spending Christmas alone just made it worse.

"That is not Christmas," Hunk said with an air of confidence in what he was saying. "Christmas is eating too much food and lying around moaning about it for the rest of the day. Actually that's Thanksgiving too." He looked thoughtful and Shiro's stomach made a sound, obviously liking the memory of turkey.

"Good morning, Paladins! Feeling bright and refreshed ready for training?" Coran came into the room, closely followed by Allura. "We hope you're feeling more ready than Lance, who seemed displeased at something."

"He's just upset at missing Christmas with his family," Pidge explained.

Coran and Allura looked blankly at her. "What's Christmas?" Allura asked.

 

**Pidge**  
  
It was hard to think of Christmas because it, more often than not, led to thoughts of family and that led to thoughts of Dad and Matt and how she still wasn't any closer to getting them home than she had been since they came through the wormhole. The last Christmas at home when it had just been her and Mom and Dad and Matt presumed dead - the absence had become almost a physical thing. She didn't like to think of how her Mom was doing now she had disappeared as well, alone in the house and Christmas just reminded her of it.

But Lance, he needed something like this. Back at the Garrison it was obvious how close Lance had been to his family, he had spent more time talking to various members of his family than he had doing schoolwork, and since he came to the castle with everyone, he obviously was suffering the loss of that connection. A part of Pidge resented him for his large family all together back on Earth because at least they were safe, but the part of Pidge that was Lance's friend understood how it hurt and wanted to help.

"We could do decorations?" She suggested. Hunk, Coran and her were brainstorming ideas about Christmas, though Coran still didn't understand and called it 'the celebration of the baby that was born and then died'. He thought it was morbid of the Paladins to share presents and eat food to celebrate someone being born that was going to die but he was happy to think about food ideas.

"Decorations? What for?" Lance's voice behind Pidge made her and Hunk jump. Coran looked up from where he was scribbling down food ideas.

"For the celebration of the dead baby, of course," he said cheerfully.

"What?" Lance looked freaked out and Pidge felt like slamming her head down on the table. That was even worse than what he called it before.

"The baby that was born and then dies in four short months. You have very strange celebrations." Coran hummed as a hologram of something alarmingly purple and moving came up from his tablet. "What do you think of this for a main course?"

"Nothing alive," Hunk said with a shudder. "Why don't I do the main course?"

"We're going to do Christmas?" Lance did not look that excited and he still had the weird, down look on his face.

"Yeah. What do you think we should add to the decorations?" Pidge asked, ignoring the lack of enthusiasm. Lance was being weird and she was going to get him back to normal whether he liked it or not.

"Come on, guys," he said. "It's not going to be the same as it was on Earth. Why bother?" That was a defeatist attitude that Pidge really wasn't used to hearing from Lance. She scowled at him. Yes, she thought it was a stupid idea but to hear it put like that made her annoyed and even more determined to get it to work. They were doing this for Lance anyway.

"It won't be the same," Hunk said in a calm tone of voice. "But giving presents, having a good meal together," the emphasis was directed at Coran, "and time off from training isn't a bad thing. You don't have to call it Christmas but we need a day off like this."

Pidge held her breath and watched as something in Lance settled. Hunk always knew what to say to Lance. Sometimes she was jealous of how they were together, she had never had a friend like that before, but other times she was simply grateful for it.

"Yeah, okay," Lance said and smiled. It wasn't his usual big smile but it was better than it had been for the last couple of days and a step in the right direction.

"Wait, when did we agree on no training on this day?" Coran asked suddenly.

  
**Keith**  
  
He didn't understand the hype behind Christmas, to him it was just another day, but Lance being quiet and angry was not something he was used to. Lance was annoying and cheerful and there but when he was homesick, he didn't even respond to everyone else properly. Keith didn't like change in people, people were complicated enough without them changing at things he could do nothing about.

"What do you normally do for Christmas?" Keith asked Shiro as they got the paper chains ready for hanging. He debated whether or not to ask, he didn't want to bring up any painful memories for Shiro, but he wanted to understand what the whole Christmas thing was about. Lance's family was huge and complicated and nothing like Keith had seen before but Shiro - he understood Shiro.

"My Aunt Hana and my grandmother normally organise something. We do more on New Year's but my grandmother makes the best Christmas cake. My Aunt Hana and I tried to make it one year and we followed her recipe exactly but it didn't turn out as nice." Shiro was smiling as he looped the paper chains together and Keith paused for a moment to look at him. There was a faraway look in Shiro's eye and Keith wondered what whether he missed his family as much as Lance did his. But that felt too personal to ask. Keith got back to making paper chains.

"Do you think we should make a Christmas cake?" Keith asked.

"We could ask Hunk but I don't think there are the right ingredients to make a cake."

Keith shrugged at Shiro's answer. Hunk was a wizard in the kitchen and had managed to make alien goo palatable, he was sure Hunk could do something about cake.

"Do you think Lance will like this?" He held up a string of paper chains. They were a faint yellowy colour, the paper here wasn't white so much. "All these decorations and crap?"

"I think he'll love it," Shiro replied.  


**Hunk**  
  
The day dawned bright and clear and Galra-free but Hunk had already woken up an hour earlier to start cooking. He had tried to recreate dishes that were like Christmas dishes but gave up when he realised that he couldn't even get something close. So instead he cooked up whatever he could find and made sure it tasted good. Coran was making some dessert on the other half of the kitchen but Hunk had continued regardless. Food wouldn't go to waste.

"So on this dead baby celebration day, everyone gets a day off work?" Coran asked as he put the finishing touches on something bright yellow and smelling of rotten eggs.

"Yeah, it's part of the fun. Even people who don't celebrate Christmas enjoy the day off with their family." Hunk chose not to talk about Coran's insistence on calling Christmas 'dead baby celebration day'. "Don't you have any holidays where everyone gets a day off?"

"Well, no. King Alfor's birthday was a celebration day but if everyone had a day off that would leave the planet defenceless!" Coran clutched a spoon to his chest to express his horror.

"King Alfor's birthday?" Hunk asked. He cut up a tuber and mixed it into the soup. His food may not remind Lance of Earth Christmas food, but at least it would be good.

"Well, it should be Princess Allura's birthday now she is Altea's ruler but she said there was no Altea to rule over so it didn't matter." Coran stared at the bright yellow thing masquerading as food. "She says there shouldn't be celebrations while the Galra are still terrorising the universe."

Hunk was sympathetic but he disagreed with it. To lose their entire country in the space of falling asleep must have been ridiculously hard, but life didn't end. Allura and Coran were still behind as Alteans, they could rebuild. "It may take years to stop the Galra," Hunk pointed out. He didn't want to think about it too much, the thought of not being able to go back to Earth and his family again for years, while they thought he was missing or dead, was a depressing thought and definitely did not belong on Christmas. "We can't stop life from happening because we've got a mission."

"Very good, Hunk!" Coran said cheerfully after a moment's thought. "And that is why I have made Allura a great delicacy on this planet in order to celebrate the dead baby! King Alfor's birthday may be too hard to think about and she doesn't want to celebrate her birthday but celebrating your strange days should be easy enough for her."

"Whatever makes you happy, Coran," Hunk said as he put another dish in the space oven. It would take a while before it was cooked enough so it was tender and wasn't the consistency of an old boot which meant that he could go and join the others for a little while. Presents had been hard enough to find when the last market they visited had been destroyed by the Galra, so they had all agreed to do a Secret Santa and to make something for each other instead.

"Presents!" Lance said as soon as Hunk and Coran walked in. His mood was better than it had been in days and he seemed to be getting into the spirit of Christmas. He handed Allura a lumpy parcel with a flourish. The room was decorated with yellow and pale green paper rings (Hunk wasn't entirely sure how Shiro and Keith had done that) and there was a small tree covered in what was probably supposed to be glitter but the little purple specks were moving.

"Why do you give presents to each other on this festival day?" Allura said as she stared down at the present with a thoroughly confused look on her face.

"The spirit of giving," Hunk said as he sat down next to Keith and received his own gift from Shiro.

"Materialism." Pidge handed her own lumpy parcel to Keith who passed his own onto Lance who shook it hard to try and guess what it was.

"You're such a pessimistic," Hunk said mildly. Shiro's present turned out to be several wooden spoons, the purple wood coming from the planet they had visited last week. "Thanks, Shiro." He examined them with interest.

"Is that the wood from the trees that tried to kill us?" Keith asked Shiro. He was ignoring Lance's ever more dramatic attempts to figure out what his present was before he opened it. His comment made Hunk drop the spoons quixkly. Poison wood was not something he wanted to be holding in his bare hands and he hoped Shiro hadn't intentionally tried to kill him. Shiro, who had been explaining to Allura what the wooden heart from Lance was supposed to be, waved his human hand.

"No, no," Shiro said with a laugh. "That was on the planet before. This wood came from the picnic planet." So been nicknamed by Lance for the acres of fields and forest and calm weather that had enabled them to have a picnic on the planet's surface.

"It's a picture!" Lance had finally opened Keith's present and was staring open-mouthed at the yellowish paper like substance that was produced on this planet.

"Well, I didn't know how to made anything else and I knew Shiro and you were both doing wood carving so I decided to draw something." Keith shrugged and went back to opening Pidge's present with a half-curious, half-apathetic look on his face. Hunk leaned over, as did nearly everyone else, to have a look at the drawing.

"It looks like our lions," Lance said, still surprised. He was right. Keith had draw the castle in charcoal and the five lions soared above it, angled together so they looked like they were about to form Voltron. Hunk didn't know anything about art but even if he could tell it was good. "It's really good."

"Thanks," Keith answered but it seemed like he didn't care one way or the other what Lance's opinion of his picture was. He was examining some black rock in his hands. "Pidge, what is this?"

"It's a paperweight," Pidge replied. Coran had given her a piece of jewellery, though Hunk didn't know whether it was supposed to be a necklace or a hair piece, and although Pidge thanked him politely, she obviously wasn't too enthused. Allura had given Coran some sort of digital Altean thing which had Coran in raptures and Hunk gave Shiro some alien cookies he had made that morning before he started the food.

"What are we having for Christmas lunch?" Pidge asked. She was poking at Allura's gift to Coran, her eyes lit up with interest, while Coran watched her with narrowed eyes.

"I'm not sure what to call it but it's something like ham, something like fish and some vegetables that taste like a mixture of Earth veg." Hunk waved his hand. All he knew was that it tasted good and it would be ready soon. "Coran did the dessert."

Lance, Keith, Pidge and Shiro looked horrified at the very thought and Shiro turned an interested gaze down onto the alien cookies. Coran dropped his suspicious looks at Pidge and was now beaming at them all.

"I have made a very popular Altean festival cake." He seemed to be telling Allura more than the rest of them and she looked sad and nostalgic at the same time. "I had to substitute some ingredients that only existed on Altea, but luckily I found an insect who gave out a similar fluid to the sweet honey of the mamkas."

"Oh, I do miss seeing those mamkas." Allura smiled as she remembered. "The fluffy little hats they had, how they created weapons out of nothing to defend their honey."

"I have decorated it in the style of the mamkas as well."

"Hunk," Shiro said quietly as Coran and Allura fell into a deep conversation about their memories of these mamkas which seemed to be fluffy little creatures which would rip your throat out if you went near their honey.

"Yeah?"

"Coran hasn't been anywhere near the main course, right?" There was an unusual expression of desperation on Shiro's face, something Hunk hadn't seen on his face even against the Galra.

"Why do you think I let him do the dessert?" Hunk replied. Considering the stuff he had seen Coran put into that cake, he wasn't the least bit tempted to try it.

 

An hour later when they sat down to dinner, Hunk looked down proudly at the many colourful dishes he had managed to produce. It was nothing like Christmas lunch was on Earth but it smelled good.

"My mouth is watering. I am actually drooling." Lance hastened to sit down, taking the spot Keith was about to sit in by matter of course. Keith rolled his eyes but sat in the next seat along, in between Shiro and Lance.

"It looks great, Hunk." Shiro was smiling and while Keith had a blank look on his face, he was eyeing the yellow plant thing in front of Lance with a focused, hungry look on his face.

"Thanks, Shiro." He looked at his friend as she put her spoon in the nearest purple liquid. "Pidge, you couldn't wait until everyone is sitting down?"

"It's a compliment," Pidge argued like it excused the table manners. Hunk normally didn't care too much but this was a proper holiday meal and his mom would have had his hide if he had started to eat before everyone was sitting down.

Hunk rolled his eyes but when everyone was sitting around, he gave the nod and everyone dug in. There was a few minutes of silence as everyone filled their plates and started eating.

"Not bad, not bad," Lance said. Hunk looked up, a trail of space noodles hanging out of his mouth which he sucked in with a slurp. "Not like Earth Christmas food but for space alien Christmas, it's good."

Hunk grinned. He didn't say what was on his mind; seeing Lance happy and laughing again was exactly what he wanted for Christmas.

  
**Lance**  
  
He had a picture of his family that he had had in his jacket pocket when they had gone through the wormhole. One of the more recent family pictures and Lance was so happy he had been forgetful and left the photo in his jacket. He worried about forgetting their voices but at least he didn't have to worry about forgetting their faces.

Talking to the picture wasn't anything like talking to his actual family but it made him feel a little less alone. And when he was telling them about his friends' 'Christmas' that they organised for him, he imagined all their reactions to the news. Alex and Maria would want to know about the presents and would be disappointed to hear everyone only received one each, his cousin Luis would want to know about the food and all his Grandma and his Mom would be interested in is whether he had a good time and if he thanked his friends for the celebration.

"I miss you guys," he said honestly. "But there are worse people I could be stuck with." The homesickness was still there but he found it was easier to fall asleep that night.


End file.
